


surprise party

by revoleotion



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Academy Era, Birthday Kiss, M/M, birthday text
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revoleotion/pseuds/revoleotion
Summary: “I have done research on human birthday traditions and I figured that surprising a friend with a cake is adequate.”Thrawn didn’t smile while he said it and didn’t lose his tense posture but there was some warmth to his voice that was new. Still, Eli wasn’t sure what to make of it.“It’s my birthday?” he asked.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto
Comments: 3
Kudos: 52





	surprise party

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday, so I get to post whatever self-indulgent text I want. Okay? Okay.  
> Happy chaos rising day! And happy birthday, Timothy Zahn!  
> \- eli

Later, when Eli tells the story, he says that he already knew something was up when he didn’t find Thrawn in their shared room in the morning. Truth was, he didn’t. Ever since Thrawn’s not rude but definitely embarrassing comment about Chiss sleeping habits, Eli had learnt not to take offense when Thrawn wasn’t there in the morning or came back at night when Eli was already asleep. (Eli would also never admit that he sometimes woke up when Thrawn walked into their room. He’d never make a lot of noise, it was just instinct at this point. Only when Thrawn’s breaths calmed down enough, he could fall asleep again.)

So, no, when Eli woke up in the morning, climbed out of his bunk-bed and looked into Thrawn’s empty bunk, he didn’t think anything of it. He got dressed on his own, grabbed his supplies for the day and walked down the hallway to get to the cantina. And even though everything was suspiciously quiet, he didn’t think anything of it. The morning was a regular morning at the academy, and even though Eli didn’t enjoy it half as much as he had liked his old academy, he was ready to face this day. 

(Except that he wasn’t.)

Upon entering the cantina, everything was so quiet that Eli suspected that the academy had been attacked. Or that this was one big, cruel trap. Eli closed his eyes, took a deep breath and walked right into it. 

It wasn't a trap. But it might have been worse. 

Thrawn stood next to the seat Eli liked to sit at in the mornings. Next to him, something that tried very hard to be a cake (but didn’t quite succeed). Almost every classmate Eli knew by name had grouped around the table and looked like they weren’t sure if they were supposed to sing or say anything. 

“Uh,” Eli made because that felt like a good thing to say. 

“I have done research on human birthday traditions and I figured that surprising a friend with a cake is adequate.”

Thrawn didn’t smile while he said it and didn’t lose his tense posture but there was some warmth to his voice that was new. Still, Eli wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

“It’s my birthday?” he asked. 

Some of his classmates tried their best not to snicker but they calmed down when Thrawn shot them a glare that did every single legend about Chiss warriors justice. 

“It is not?” he then asked, nervousness to his voice that Eli had never heard before. 

“Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t really celebrate my birthday,” he said. Which was true. He had planned to just forget about it and then, once he got his degree, celebrate with his parents and then go straight to his new job. There was nothing about birthdays that he liked, and therefore nothing he missed.

Thrawn looked like he had just been informed that he lost a very intense battle. Eli almost felt bad. He didn’t hate him, he didn’t even dislike him. He had no idea how to act around others, and everything about this seemed like he had followed the first birthday party instructions he came across. 

“It is my birthday,” Eli said. Honestly, he trusted Thrawn with that. He must’ve found his birthday on the records somehow, and Eli was willing to believe it. “And I- I appreciate it. Do you want to share the cake?”

“It’s your cake,” Thrawn said calmly. 

Eli stepped closer to take a look at it. Thrawn had even gotten his age right, which was embarrassing because Eli forgot his own age half of the time. The number was written with icing, right underneath Eli’s name. He counted the right amount of candles too, carefully placed on the edge. 

“It looks wonderful,” Eli said. It didn’t feel like a lie, despite the cake being a mess by human standards. But this was Thrawn. Thrawn who had gone out of his way to bake him a cake and get candles from the-force-knew-where. 

“I am aware that it doesn’t come close to the reference I used -”

“I love it,” Eli interrupted him. “Would you mind a hug for all your troubles?”

For the first time Thrawn smiled. 

“It didn’t take too long.”

“I didn’t hear you come home tonight,” Eli said quietly, quiet enough for Thrawn but not the classmates to hear. The Chiss’ smile did not falter, it might have gotten even brighter. 

“Are hugs a birthday tradition?” he asked. 

“Unless you want a kiss instead,” Eli said. 

Thrawn looked into his eyes, down on his lips, back up into his eyes. Eli knew how much effort it was for the Chiss to keep up eye contact, especially if they were this intimate.

“I’d like to try that,” Thrawn said after a few seconds. 

Eli hadn’t expected to ever get this far. He felt the blush on his cheeks but he couldn’t back out now. He smiled up to the man he couldn’t bring himself to hate and made himself as tall as possible. 

“Happy birthday,” Thrawn whispered before kissing him. 

The cantina managed to fall even more silent, an awkward silence this time. The silence that Eli was still trying to grow out of, the feeling that something about loving an alien was disgusting and wrong. At this moment, he couldn’t care less. 

“Let’s try the cake, shall we?” he asked. “I don’t want to be late.”

“I arranged for a day off,” Thrawn informed him when Eli tried to cut the cake into even pieces and handed out plates to everyone that dared to try it. There were only a handful of students left, probably the only ones who weren’t disgusted by the sight of Eli kissing a male alien. (As Eli had discovered, Thrawn’s gender didn’t matter a lot. He knew that Grand Admiral Tarkin openly liked men, and that was all he needed to know.) Once every classmate had their cake, Eli finally tried it as well. 

It wasn’t bad. And he felt a little bad for thinking this, after all Thrawn was a brilliant person and very much capable of learning new skills. Still, Eli had expected a lot worse from this cake. But it was very nice, not too sweet and the icing was the right amount of sticky on his tongue and his teeth and his fingers. Just like every good icing was. 

It was only after his first few bites that Eli realized what Thrawn had just said. He didn’t press the conversation, he just waited for Eli to catch up. 

“Day off,” he repeated. 

Thrawn nodded. Not impatiently, Eli noticed, probably because Eli had a reason to be distracted. 

“Why a day off?” Eli added. 

“Because I read that you are supposed to spend your birthday with the ones you love. To arrange this, I had to get you a day off to visit your parents.”

Eli almost dropped his fork. 

“Thrawn,” he said very quietly. “Please tell me you didn’t -”

“Sadly, your parents informed me that they don’t have time for a visit,” Thrawn finished with no reaction to Eli’s interruption. 

“Good,” Eli said. “I’m perfectly fine with spending the day with you.”

Thrawn smiled again. Even though Eli usually had to explain everything else about being social to him, he was suddenly sure that Thrawn understood this hint. 


End file.
